Georgia made up the commitments in Women’s conditions improvement sphere. As a member of the CoE, Georgia has a tremendous work to do in order to accomplish CoE standards in gender equality field.

• Further integration of Georgia in Europe needs even more effort in gender mainstreaming.
• Development of institutional basis to realize gender equality activities on a state level is one of the prerequisites for becoming a member of the European Union.
• In 1994 - Georgia joined Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
• At 1995  Beijing Conference - Georgia joined the countries that agreed to work out national working plan of women’s status improvement.
• In 2002 - Georgia joined Optional Protocol to the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Having studied and analyzed the existed situation and the demands, the ODIHR designed a strategy aimed at uniting the women’s NGOs in Georgia and ultimately supporting their development and viability.

The special programme was led by Ms. Tiina Ilsen, Gender Advisor, Gender Unit, ODIHR/OSCE.

In June 2000 Ms. Ilsen called for a meeting inviting the leader women of those non-governmental organizations that work on women’s issues in Georgia.
           
The training ‘Leader Women and Creation of Women’s NGO Coalition in Georgia’ was organized and led by ODIHR/OSCE expert trainers invited for the specific task.

The training aimed at developing gender related issues awareness, as well as at establishing the coalition and developing necessary skills for its effective management.

As a result of the training session, the Coalition of Women’s NGOs of Georgia was established.

Following the ODIHR/OSCE programme supporting the Coalition, its members underwent several additional trainings in 2000 ‘03.

As a result, the following were finalized: the Coalition regulations and the action plan, 9 working groups: